Premiere: No Relief in Entry’s new video for “Time Heal Me”

Modern hardcore, in its most traditional strain, stems directly from the likes of Black Flag but exists now through a twisted evolution that people like me have attempted to label with absurd titles like emoviolence, powerviolence, and any number of “-core” affixed descriptors. However, one of the main common themes that can be found when listening to or discovering newer variants is a critical nucleus consisting of compact, ferociously brief songs that maintain a rapidfire pace just shy of grind, at least to these ears. Sometimes these include (extremely) brief breakdowns or mid-tempo breathers before flying off the handle again in a manic explosion of righteous vengeance and furious anger.

One band that hits all of those elements and goes hard as fuck on their new EP is Entry out of Los Angeles, CA. No Relief rampages through six songs in just under 7 minutes and you can easily find yourself listening to this ten times over before realizing you’ve done it. The material is just that fresh and, for straight forward hardcore, this is layered with enough interesting touches whether zeroing in on the scorched earth vocals of singer, Sara, picking out the hints of Minor Threat in Clayton Stevens’ (Touche Amore) riffing, marveling at the dead-on metronomic drumming of Elliot Babin (Touche Amore), or the small flourishes in Daniel Pouliot’s (Horse the Band, Ancestors) bass work. This is a surprisingly deep, if brief, piece of musicianship that anyone can appreciate. The way that this band weave all of these things together into such a tight package of one minute or less per track is nothing short of amazing when you consider some bands can’t make it happen in 5 or even 10 times the space.

While this isn’t necessarily game-changing hardcore it is a new high for the form when you consider what they do with some serious influences drawn together with even sharper chops. The band cite Minor Threat, Discharge, and Career Suicide as influences and, while the elements of all three are there, the astute listener may also pick up strong hints of Dropdead, Antischism, and Los Crudos (and if you have never heard these latter three bands, after listening to this new track from Entry, go and find a way to listen to them, immediately). This isn’t faint praise so we urge any and all fans of hardcore to check out this premiere of Entry’s brand spanking new video for “Time Heal Me” below.

This track, and the EP that it appears on, reminds us about what was, is, and can be great about the genre. It has always been about stripped down, sharply delivered, to-the-point songs with little left to the imagination. It’s a way to blow off steam and get something off your chest. This release does that and then some.Hungry for more? Head over to Entry’s bandcamp page where you can checkout the EP, No Relief in its entirety or head over to Dune Altar’s website to get your vinyl fix.